Google Alerts is a great little FREE tool. It’s really a personal search engine. You enter your search terms and it begins searching automatically, without any further help from you. When Google runs across information on the web that matches your request, it automatically brings you the results. It’s very simple to use.
For example, I like to keep up with the latest news on malware (malicious software). So, one of my Google alerts is for “malware.” You can use more than one word, like ” 1992 Honda Civic transmission.”
You can limit it to search only news, only blogs, only video, only groups or just on the Web, depending on what you’re searching for. But if you’re not sure, use the ‘comprehensive’ setting and all the above choices will be included.
The next setting is called ‘How Often,’ meaning how often you want the results returned. Your choices are as-it-happens, once a day and once a week.
How many results do you want included? The only choices are 20 and 50.
The last choice is in what format you’d like the results delivered, either by e-mail or by feed. If you don’t know what a feed is pick e-mail.
Then you create an alert and wait for the results. I typically set mine for ‘comprehensive,’ once a day, 20 results, and e-mail. It takes about 30 seconds to set up an alert.
Sometimes you get too many results and have to tinker with the search terms to filter some results out. Once in a while you won’t get many results and you’ll have to think about what to try next.
I have a short Google Alerts tutorial (pdf) that will walk you through this process.
If you’d like to try your hand at this type of automated searching, go to http://www.google.com/alerts .
You will need a free Google account first. It’s free and they don’t ask for much information. I have a quick publication on How to Create a Google Account. When you’re ready, you can start that process here: https://www.google.com/accounts/
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